GANDHINAGAR, FEB 12
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has projected a credit potential of Rs 1,87,354.76 crore for Gujarat in the financial year 2020-21. NABARD’s ‘State Focus Paper’ was released by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani at the ‘State Credit Seminar’ organised in Gandhinagar on Wednesday.
Speaking at the seminar, Rupani called upon banks and other stakeholders to achieve the credit projections identified by NABARD and also Prime Minister Narndra Mod’s $5 trillion economy.
According to the paper, NABARD’s credit potential projection for 2019-20 was Rs 1.54 lakh crore. For 2020-21, NABARD has estimated category-wise credit potential estimations of Rs 95980.59 crore for agriculture, Rs 72017.77 crore for MSME and Rs 19356.40 crore for other priority sectors (total Rs 1,87,354.76 crore), said the document.
The State Focus Paper has been drawn up based on the Potential Linked Credit Plans (PLPs) for 2020-21 of all the 33 districts of the state.
Chief Minister Vijaybhai Rupani welcomed the endeavor by NABARD in drawing up the State Focus Paper based on the Potential Linked Credit Plans (PLPs) for the year 2020-21 of all 33 districts of the State and for convening the State Credit Seminar. He called upon all the banks and other stakeholders to achieve the credit projections identified by NABARD.
The Chief Minister also appreciated the various Credit and Developmental initiatives of NABARD in the State especially its association with the State Government in developing Rural infrastructure. He also commended various developmental initiatives of NABARD for tribal, farmers, women and other rural populations. He also commented upon the initiatives being taken by the State Government for creating a conducive environment for economic development especially ease of doing business, fast-tracking of MSME projects. He sought NABARD’s support in providing drinking water to every rural household through ‘Nal Se Jal Tak scheme’. He urged upon all stakeholders to make Gujarat a Renewable Energy surplus state and make available all basic needs and infrastructure facilities to the last person. He observed that Gujarat is a leading state in national development and Gujarat should lead to realise the dream of Prime Minister to make the Indian economy a $5 trillion economy by 2022.
Deputy Chief Minister Nitinbhai Patel said, “The NABARD has been supplementing the State Government’s efforts for the development of Infrastructure in the State through financing out of its ‘Rural Infrastructure Development Fund’, ‘Long Term Irrigation Fund’ and ‘Warehouse Infrastructure Fund’. The Government of Gujarat has taken fullest advantage of these concessional funds and implemented various projects in irrigation, rural roads, public health centers, Anganwadis, rural sanitation structures, storage creation, etc. These projects have contributed positively to the State’s economy and bringing prosperity to the agriculture sector and rural areas. All banks should work together for financial inclusion to cover in all the villages of Gujarat especially private banks should come forward in this regard.”
D K Mishra, Chief General Manager, NABARD, Gujarat, informed that the bank is undertaking a host of grant-based developmental initiatives in the state. He thanked the Government of Gujarat for playing a proactive role and maintaining a conducive atmosphere for growth, especially in the Agriculture and Rural Development Sector in the State. He also appreciated the Banks for achieving steady growth in ground-level credit over the years. Mishra indicated that besides providing credit support to Banks and associating with State Government for augmenting Infrastructure in Rural areas, NABARD is also undertaking a host of Grant based developmental initiatives in the State.
“NABARD is working to strengthen and widen the network of Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs) in the state and bring more small and marginal farmers under the ambit of structured marketing, value addition, and input procurement. NABARD also aims to bring more self-help groups under bank credit through its E-Shakti portal which facilitates uploading transaction data of SHGs on a real-time basis,” Mishra said.
Mishra also informed that the Union Government has recently allocated Rs. 764 crore to Gujarat under the newly Instituted Micro Irrigation Development Fund in NABARD which will help farmers to make optimum utilization of available water for irrigation.
S K Panigrahy, Regional Director, RBI, speaking during the Seminar, appreciated the bankers for over-achieving the Priority Sector Targets during the last two years. However, he emphasized on the need to further augment the Agriculture Term Lending in the state as also make available the MSME credit to more micro-level borrowers.
Among those who attended the seminar were Agriculture Minister R.C. Faldu, Cooperation Minister Ishwarsinh Patel, Minister of State for Agriculture and Panchayat and Environment Jaydrathsinhji Chandrasinhji Parmar, Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) Pankaj Joshi, and Gujarat Regional Director of Reserve Bank of India S K Panigrahy, besides a host of senior bureaucrats, bankers, NGOs and other stakeholders.
During the Seminar NABARD gave away various awards for excellence in the field of Agriculture and Rural Development under various categories to Banks, NGOs, Farmer Producer Organizations and other agencies who contributed significantly in various developmental initiatives of NABARD in the State like Natural Resource Management, Climate Change Mitigation, Farmers Producer Organizations, Financial Inclusion and SHG-Bank linkage, etc.
